JEANNE D'ARC:

A new and powerful biography of Saint Joan of Arc, for the hundredth anniversary of her canonization, including new elements that have recently come to light.

Another book about Joan of Arc? One more to add to the hundreds already published? Yes, insists Valérie Toureille, a specialist on the Hundred Years' War: we need new historical perspective on this great female figure, so readily evoked by writers, legal experts and essayists. A true biography that puts Joan of Arc in context, going back to the original sources. This work is all the more vital because, contrary to popular belief, not everything about Joan is already known - not all has been said, far from it, about her family, her close relations, the men who accompanied her. Not long ago, for instance, Toureille discovered that one of Jeanne's uncles had also been condemned; his letter of remission was sleeping in the French National Archives.
The extraordinary journey of the "poor girl" from Domrémy can be approached and interpreted in a diversity of ways. Toureille does not pretend to be decisive. She has summoned to the Court of History those who knew her, women and men, friends and enemies, more than 150 witnesses. She lets them speak, details the facts, clarifies Joan's actions in the light of prevailing circumstances, and lets readers form their own opinion. She has produced a reference work that will certainly renew the historiography of the "Maid of Orleans", burned at the stake in 1431 at the age of 19, declared innocent in 1456, beatified in 1909 and finally raised to sainthood in 1920.
A "must" that combines reading pleasure with historical rigor.

VALÉRIE TOUREILLE, Professor of History of the Middle Ages at the University of Paris-Seine/Cergy-Pontoise and a former researcher at the Fondation Thiers, has devoted several books to violence and society at the time of the Hundred Years War.